Modern PSX Shaders

Modern PSX Shaders

Modernising the classic look.

Fixes for banners and such require the compatibility mod here: Modern PSX Shader Compat (currently in moderation review from modrinth but check back here to see if the link works at some point)

Modern PSX Shaders is a shader pack I originally made for myself, with plenty of assistance along the way debugging it and getting everything working properly.

It combines a slightly unstable PS1-inspired look with modern lighting and atmospheric effects, without being excessively demanding to run.

Features

Retro rendering

• Screen-space vertex snapping
• Optional affine texture warping for PS1-style texture swimming
• Ordered dithering with adjustable pattern size and strength
• Configurable colour quantisation
• Chunky, pixelated enchantment glint
• Compatibility controls for snapped entities and custom models

Lighting and shadows

• Dynamic shadows with adjustable resolution, distance, and filtering
• Coloured voxel lighting from different light sources
• Distinct colours for soul lights, sea lanterns, redstone, froglights, amethyst, torches, and more
• Emissive blocks and compatible held-light colours
• Adjustable sunlight, block-light, and night brightness

Atmosphere and sky

• World-space sun shafts cast through terrain and foliage
• Optional pale moonlight shafts
• Custom night sky with procedural stars and a PSX-style Milky Way
• Long-distance fog that fades the landscape without completely hiding the sky
• Day and night atmospheric haze
• Smooth biome-based colour grading
• Stylised clouds
• White lightning with localised sky flashes

Customisation

Most parts of the pack can be adjusted or disabled individually, including:

• Vertex snapping
• Affine warping
• Dithering and colour levels
• Shadow quality and distance
• Coloured lighting
• Fog and atmospheric haze
• Cloud density
• Sun and moon shafts
• Stars and Milky Way visibility
• Emissive lighting
• Enchantment glint

There are also three included profiles:

Profile · Intended use
Performance · Reduced shadow and volumetric costs for weaker hardware
Default · The intended balance of visuals and performance
Cinematic · Higher-quality shadows, longer distances, and stronger settings

Performance

In my testing, the Default profile is generally a little lighter to run than Complementary. If you can comfortably run that, you should hopefully be fine here as well.

If not, the Performance profile and individual settings give you plenty of room to scale things back.

Distant Horizons

Distant Horizons is supported, although its distant terrain can look a little unusual with vertex snapping enabled.

That is mostly an unavoidable side effect of combining extremely distant geometry with intentionally unstable, pixel-snapped rendering. You can reduce the distant snapping strength if it bothers you.

Personally, I turn the sun-shaft strength up because I like the extra atmosphere - but that one is entirely up to you.

This is still very much a personal shader pack, so there's a good chance it won't see many updates beyond what I'd like to do. Sorry! I might end up doing compatibility stuff if I see fit.